![Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby during the Christmas Day service at Canterbury Cathedral.](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/04/29/TELEMMGLPICT000333268670_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqlCywJ3NLvaKVH4MdHpRVu7xlL4JJZFr6G2BGlsAngeI.jpeg?imwidth=680)
![Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby during the Christmas Day service at Canterbury Cathedral.](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/04/29/TELEMMGLPICT000333268670_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqlCywJ3NLvaKVH4MdHpRVu7xlL4JJZFr6G2BGlsAngeI.jpeg?imwidth=680)
When the King and Queen Camilla are crowned on Saturday, it won’t just be the monarchy that is in the spotlight: this is also the Church of England’s big day. Ever since Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and set up the Church of England, it has been the established Church of this country. And there is no greater sign of that intertwining of Church and Crown than the Coronation.
Yet in the run-up to Charles’s crowning, there has been talk of how other Christian denominations would be involved, and how other faiths would take their place, too, at the High Altar of Westminster Abbey, as a sign of British diversity and contemporary tolerance. Seventy years ago, the only ecumenical gesture allowed at the Coronation was permitting the Moderator of the Church of Scotland hand Elizabeth II the Bible on which she would swear her oaths.
Well, the Moderator is there again, in his Bible-holder role. This time, there are indeed other gestures towards believers, other than Anglicans. But what it really amounts to is window-dressing.
Take the other Christian denominations. They will have their own ecumenical procession and then, after the King is crowned, there will be a series of blessings, bookended by the two Anglican primates, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. Four others – the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Thyateira & Great Britain, Nikitas Loulias, plus the Moderator of the Free Churches and the General Secretary of Churches Together in England will between them utter about 90 words amid the thousands upon thousands uttered by Anglican clerics.
But it is 90 words more of prayer than the representatives of other faiths, who will have their own procession at the start of the Coronation and keep silent, other than offering the King greetings just after the service ends.
Canon law of the Church of England, which prohibits other faiths saying prayers, has been adhered to. Lambeth Palace was also keen to point out that the Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Jewish peers involved in carrying coronation items are not holding objects with Christian symbols, such as the orb topped with a cross. The most notable involvement of a non-Christian is the Hindu Rishi Sunak, reading the Epistle, but he takes his place by reason of his office: it has become traditional for the Prime Minister to read a lesson at a Church-meets-state-meets-Crown occasion, as Liz Truss did at the late Queen’s funeral.
Perhaps this is too restrictive, and more could have been done to enable other representatives to do more. But the fact that they do not indicates that on May 6, the Church of England wants to ensure that this is its day in the sun, that it remains the Church in this country, which the King will swear an oath to maintain. While the King is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and also holds the title of Defender of the Faith, it is really up to the bishops to look after and preserve the Anglican church.
Yet its attendance is plummeting, and even those left frequently complain of the financial burden they have to carry and how it is managed. Archbishop Welby admits to sometimes suffering from depression. He can be cheered by taking his place in history by crowning a king. But however much the Coronation remains thoroughly Anglican, the legacy really worth having would be for the Church of England to not just be in pole position because of its role in the ceremony, but because it sustains the spiritual wellbeing of so many more people in this country.
Catherine Pepinster is the author of Defenders of the Faith – the British Monarchy, Religion and the Next Coronation
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The Coronation will be a Church of England affair – adhering to its canon law, which prevents other faiths from saying prayers